Deal with U.S. to take refugees held by Australia shows its flawed approach, official says

CANBERRA—The United Nations’ top human rights envoy urged Europe not to view Australia as a model for solving the continent’s migrant crisis, condemning Australia’s system of offshore detention for asylum seekers as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”

François Crepeau, the U.N. special rapporteur on migrant human rights, said here on Friday the recent U.S. deal to accept a some refugees from Australian-backed detention centers in the Pacific showed that the country’s “punitive” approach was unraveling.